Unlikely Sleeping Arrangements
by Silent Sage
Summary: Tatsuhi Kobayashi and Rory Nubbins are roommates. It's a good deal, Kobayashi likes to think. Although the singing is a little worrying.


**Unlikely Sleeping Arrangements**

**Disclaimer**: None of the characters in here belong to me, but Columbia Pictures and Sony.

...

They end up as roommates.

Kobayashi neatly places his bag onto the bed, sighing before he turns around to the other side of the room. He thought it was his imagination playing games with him due to the excitement and stress of the looming competition.

Barely a few hours within arriving on the island, the Australian's side of the room already looked like a monsoon has passed though. He shakes his head.

The mirage is actually a reality.

Trinkets from Australia (is that a didgeridoo?) were carefully scattered on top of the bed, along with already rumpled sheets and splayed pillows.

Rory suddenly bursts into the room, squid on a stick – and raving about the waves and the island.

(Btw, when did Rory get the chance to get the squid on a stick? They've only been here for 20 minutes!)

"Remember that little goof from that frozen island, yeah?"

Who could forget? The little penguin nearly risked life and wing for the surfing competition while trying to get on the whale.

Rory's squid on a stick is flailing in the air as he talks. Kobayashi is pretty sure if he doesn't watch the Australian penguin carefully enough, he's gonna get jabbed by said squid on a stick.

"He's going to surf? Let's go, mate!" Rory tugs the other out of the room, squid on a stick still flailing in the air, as he recounts the confrontation between Cody and Tank.

Kobayashi ignores the mess for now.

...

Rory is heavy, Kobayashi mentally notes.

He's basically carrying the smaller penguin on his shoulders - - the Australian's wings anchored around his shoulders, his beak nestled against the curve of his neck. Despite his small size, the Aussie can surely drink. Rory's hair, messy and frightfully yellow, like those plastic yellow figurines of animated characters that are constantly the rage for children back in Japan, is surprisingly soft against his cheek.

He's pretty sure Rory drank his weight in booze.

Or rather, Rory drank Kobayashi's weight in booze.

It would be an otherwise uneventful, peaceful even, trek back to their room if not for the singing.

It's soft, barely a murmur and hum rumbling against his shoulder.

It takes a moment, a minute really, for him to figure out which song it is.

He's heard it before.

Kobayashi was in Australia and -

Oh.

Rory does a frighteningly good job of singing the Australian national anthem.

The singing is a little weird while drunk, but with Rory's voice, the drawl –slow like honey in the sun- Kobayashi can't complain.

Nor can he when Rory finishes singing, tightening his grip around Kobayashi and murmurs his name with that same, sugar-sweet voice that caught his attention in the first place.

...

Umm.

What does he do?

Kobayashi frowns. Rory's bed is basically a placeholder for the other's belongings (how in the world does he have this much stuff when he was only carrying a surfboard and a gym bag along the trip?).

He sighs.

Carefully, he backs into his own bed. It takes a little effort, Rory has a grip on him like a squid to a clam, but he wiggles a little and gently prods Rory in the stomach – he squeaks – and finally the blonde penguin unlatches from his shoulders and rolls onto the bed with a murmur. Immediately, Rory burrows into the blankets, his flippers and feet flinging the blankets and pillows around him until he has some sort of odd nest around him. His chest moves up and down rhythmically - still asleep.

No wonder his bed looks the way it does.

Kobayashi snags a leftover pillow Rory threw on the ground and gets ready to sleep on the floor. He's slept in worse conditions. Those little pod-beds in Japan, the one and single time he tried to sleep in them, probably caused his claustrophobia.

A wing on his own causes Kobayashi to pause.

Rory is blinkingly blearily at him, his hair wayward and clumped up in all directions and Kobayashi can see a glimmer of blue underneath all that ocean-bleached blonde hair, and he pauses.

"Why am I in your bed, mate?"

Kobayashi can see the other is still drunk, so he attempts to keep the conversation to a minimum before Rory falls back asleep. "I placed you there."

Rory absently scratches his head, moving more strands of hair away from his head and –

Those are not the eyes of a drunkard.

"My bed is right over there."

"Under all your belongings."

"You could've moved them. Heck, you could've dropped me on top of the buggers."

Kobayashi shrugs. Rory's wing is still a firm, distracting warmth on his. "I can sleep on the floor."

"I…" Rory cocks his head, blue eyes luminescent against the strike of moonlight that shines through the windows. "We can share."

English is a very difficult language, Kobayashi ponders. He then promptly categorizes the about the quantity of alcoholic beverages he may or may have not consumed tonight.

He would like to blame the five beers on momentary lapse of English.

"The bed," Rory clarifies quickly. "I don't know how you do it in Japan, but me and my mates often sleep in the bed. We're buds yeah?"

Never has Kobayashi shared a bed with anyone else, other than his significant others, since he was a hatchling.

The silence causes Rory's grip to loosen.

Kobayashi grabs the blonde's slackened wrist, "If you don't mind, then I don't."

They're…friends after all.

The grin on Rory's face, especially when he bashfully scratches his hair and Kobayashi can see glimpses of the other's face beneath the blonde strands, is probably as thrilling as the waves they experienced today.

Settling himself on the bed, he only allows himself to touch Rory –just barely- on the shoulder. He doesn't want to intrude into the other's personal space.

A few hours later, waking up from a half-asleep state, he realizes that they have significantly changed positions. Rory is basically burrowed against him, his leg throw around him. To Kobayashi's mortification, he's basically trapped the other against him and the wall behind him. His wing is haphazardly thrown around the other penguin, keeping them pressed together.

Rory is mumbling again, probably singing the national anthem again, but remains peacefully asleep against Kobayashi's chest. His body is warm and soft and so…pliant, comfortable in this too-small bed with his distinctively male competitor turned bedmate.

Kobayashi closes his eyes, comfortable. He falls asleep to soft murmurings of the Aussie national anthem.

...

When he wakes up, Rory is nowhere to be found.

Kobayashi frowns; he's usually such a light sleeper. He should've woken up to any movement by the smaller penguin.

Stretching his body, Kobayashi is surprised at how light he feels. It's one of the best sleeps he's ever had, especially compared to recent years due to the ridiculous amount of competitions he's done ever since he went pro.

Especially considering they were basically sardines on that bed, but he's very relaxed. He smells the ocean and something distinctly…Rory all over the bed and himself.

He mulls.

Kobayashi can hear the water breaking against the rocks, the gulls overhead, and he realizes that Rory – Rory-

He smells like the sun.

It doesn't necessarily sting, but Kobayashi is a little baffled that Rory is suddenly hanging out with the Brazilian surfer.

Normally (they've only known each other two days, whispers his conscious), Rory would be by his side, enthusiastically speaking, his Australian slang coming out more frequently the more excited he get, so much so that Kobayashi would have to nod along, just barely understanding the story.

Rory catches Kobayashi's eye for a moment.

Kobayashi raises his wing, just barely, to wave at the other.

Except Rory's back is already turned to him.

...

Cody is a brilliant surfer. To evolve from a penguin that could barely stand on his board to the protégée of Z, the legendary surfer, was an astounding feat.

Kobayashi did his meet and greet nonsense during the initial swarm around Cody and Z. He was absolutely ecstatic, but it turned sour by the time he reached the bedroom. He and the rest of the competitors had a courtesy stay for another two or three nights at the hotel before they were supposed to return to their respective countries.

Rory was sitting on his – his _designated_- bed. His belongings neatly tucked on one side.

"It was aces meeting Z, don'cha think?"

Now he wants to talk?

"Yes," Kobayashi says blandly.

End of conversation.

Sleep would be good now.

"I-I'm sorry," Rory suddenly speaks out, catching Kobayashi's attention just before he hits his head on the pillow.

"Pardon?"

"I um…when I-I woke, I was basically sleeping on top of you," Rory says quickly, the tips of his wings playing with the blanket thrown over his lap. "I-I probably offended you of the sort. I know the Japanese are like, supposed to be…be…like." He pauses before blurting, "I took advantage of your kindness."

The pause between them is deafening. He can hear the roaring of the waves behind them. Or maybe it's the beat of his own heart as he feels his heart accelerate and the pounding of his own heart thrums in his skull like taiko drums. He knows so much of the ocean, Tank's mom isn't the only mother who popped her egg out in the ocean; he knows it so well that it baffles him that he can't apply the same knowledge to everything, _everyone_, else.

"I… didn't mind," Kobayashi finally admits. He doesn't think he can give the Aussie the cold shoulder when he's blushing, his wings rumpling the blanket on his lap, Kobayashi feels as low as a flounder.

"B-but I-"

Kobayashi cuts him off before further misunderstandings arise. "I enjoyed sleeping with you."

Biting the inside of his mouth, he blames the alcohol – he drank ten bottles of that hard beer although he refuses to admit it was due to Rory hanging over that Brazilian penguin- and finally rasps out, "I like you."

Rory's mouth is hanging open. His hair is covering his face so he can't see what facial expression the smaller penguin has on, but-but-

Kobayashi cannot stop his mouth.

He will certainly abstain from alcohol after tonight.

"I'm very fond of you. Y-you just…when I'm around you, I'm happier." To top off the admission that Kobayashi thought was buried somewhere in the back of his mind, he ends it with, "I was upset when suddenly left that morning."

He doesn't expect he can save whatever friendship he has (had) with Rory after this confession.

The Australian penguin is always surprising him though.

Rory basically throws himself on top of him.

Wings wrap around him tightly, and suddenly Kobayashi can smell the ocean again, the sun, and everything that is good about the waves and the water, and he's more than definitely sure he's holding it all in his arms and has no intention of letting go.

Rory attempts to burrow into him like a hamster in a nest of wood shavings.

"I knew I liked you," Rory mumbles into Kobayashi's collarbone, his grip on the larger penguin tightening, his wingtips fidgeting against the strong line of his back. "Like, _liked you-liked you_ when I saw you surf. It was like watching a hawk flying after its prey. Precise, elegant."

Carefully, Kobayashi moves Rory's blonde strands away from his face. He sees blue eyes, reminiscent of the ocean stare back at him, a red tint on the bridge of the Aussie's beak.

He doesn't want anyone else to see that expression but _him_.

"I-when I like someone, I-I sing the national anthem around them," Rory attempts to turn his head away, but Kobayashi's wing on his cheek is firm. "My friends call it daft, but I…I knew I really did like you."

Leaning down to press his beak against the other's, Kobayashi smiles as it's happily returned.

"I'll sing the Japanese anthem for you."

* * *

><p><strong>SS<strong>: Whoo! Done! Hopefully I got RoryxKobayashi thing out of my system. haha


End file.
